Hiring a GM was something Al Davis refused to do despite the fact that the last time he had one his team made it to the Super Bowl. The very second this season ended Mark Davis brought in Reggie McKenzie. Let’s hope history repeats itself sooner than later.

Hiring a head coach with a defensive pedigree was something Al Davis never believed in. The second Reggie McKenzie was hired his first order of business was to fire the offensive minded Hue Jackson. Starting tomorrow the Raiders will begin yet another search for a head coach. Thus far most of the names that have surfaced are coaches with a defensive background. Most are also currently coaching in Green Bay as McKenzie looks to build the Packers West.

The Raider times they are a changing.

The first man to sit in front of Reggie McKenzie that will make his pitch to become Hue Jackson’s replacement will be Todd Bowles. The man that took over as interim head coach of the Miami Dolphins was once a defensive back in the NFL and has made his bones coaching up DBs.

Beyond Bowles the other names that are linked to McKenzie’s pool of candidates are Winston Moss, Darren Perry and Dom Capers.

All of those men are defensive minds and chances are not a single one of them would have ever made head coach under Al Davis.

For starters, AD was the default defensive coordinator of the Raiders. There is just no way he was going to waste any of his time arguing with a head coach that wanted to run the defense his way. Hence the reason why retreads like John Marshall and Chuck Bresnahan were given coordinator jobs in recent years.

While Winston Moss has been rumored to be a candidate the last two times the Raiders searched for a head coach at no point in time did it ever seem likely he’d get the gig.

This time around things will be much different and Mark Davis will see to it.
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Here is what Williamson has to say about Houston.

Houston has the look of an impact player who plays with a mean streak. He was easy to notice in the preseason last year, and he made one big play after another as a rookie. He looks like he’ll be in the NFL for the next dozen years. He is versatile and can play in virtually every defensive situation.

I like that Williamson pointed out Houston’s mean streak. The dude definitely plays with a chip on his shoulder and likes to mix it up on the field. Lamarr is a new school player with an old school Raider mentality.
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Our long Raider National nightmare is over!

This has the look and smell of an Al Davis move. I highly doubt any other individuals seriously interested in the position would have dealt with being in limbo with regards to their job duties for this long. But Bresnahan, who wasn’t even in the NFL last year, had little to no leverage and must have been all too happy just to be collecting a healthy check.

This is yet another case of Davis placing a puppet on his staff.
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